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American  Art 

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THE 

HILL-OF-CORN 

SERIES 


Number  One 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/americanarthowitOOdanarich 


AMERICAN  ART 


AMERICAN  ART 

HOW  IT  CAN  BE  MADE  TO 
FLOURISH 


BY  J.  C.  DANA 


WOODSTOCK  VERMONT 
1914 


CONTENTS 

I    There  is  Very  Little  Of  It  5 

II    Why  There  is  so  Little  American  Art    7 

m    Play  and  Art  8 

IV    Artists  and  Artisans  are  Here,  but 

Are  Not  Paid  to  Produce  10 

V    Genius  and  Talent  Remain  Hidden 

Until  They  Are  Called  Forth         1 1 

VI    The  Italian  Renaissance  Came  When 

It  Was  Paid  to  Come  12 

VII  The  American  Renaissance  is  Not 
Even  Courteously  Invited  to 
Appear  15 

VIII    Our  View  of  What  is  Art,  is  Much 

Too  Narrow  16 

IX     The  Oil  Painting  Fetish  18 

X    The  Study  of  American  Art  Defined    20 

XI    The  Importance  of  Being  Interested 

and  Critical  21 


AMERICAN  ART 
XII     Art  Study  Should  be  Domesticated       23 

XIII    How  to  Become  Patrons  of  American 

Art  25 

XrV    The  Great  Obstacle  to  Becoming  an 

Honest  Art  Patron  27 

XV    A  Definite  Suggestion  for  Art 

Patronage  28 


AMERICAN  ART 


I 

THERE  IS  VERY  LITTLE  OF  IT 

When  I  reflect  on  the  words  American 
Art,  many  things  come  into  my  mind;  such, 
for  example,  as  tableware,  cutlery,  table 
linen,  chairs  and  tables ;  draperies  and  wall 
papers;  houses,  churches,  banks,  oflSice  build- 
ings and  -railway  stations ;  medals  and  stat- 
ues; books,  journals,  signs  and  posters; 
lamp-posts  and  fountains;  jewelry,  silver- 
ware, clocks  and  lamps ;  carpets  and  rugs; 
laces,  embroideries  and  ribbons ;  vases  and 
candlesticks;  etchings,  engravings,  draw- 
ings, —  and  paintings. 

Then  I  ask  myself,  do  we  in  America, 
when  we  make  these  things,  commonly  give 
them  that  indescribable  touch  which  turns 
each  of  them  into  an  object  of  art,  an 

l5l 


AMERICAN  ART 

object,  that  is,  which  gives  continuing  pleas^ 
ure  to  discriminating  persons  of  experience 
in  such  matters  ?  And  I  answer  my  question 
by  saying,  no. 

Though  we  are  very  numerous,  very 
prosperous  and  very  rich;  though  we  spend 
millions  on  education  and  on  the  whole  are 
perhaps  the  most  competent  people  on 
earth,  we  do  not  yet  produce  much  that 
the  calm  observer  may  call  beautiful.  We 
buy  our  objects  of  art  from  other  countries ; 
we  educate  our  artists  in  other  countries ; 
we  borrow  designs  for  decorating  almost 
everything  we  make,  or  we  import  foreign- 
made  designers ;  and  for  an  art  journal  we 
steal  a  comer  of  one  published  in  England, 
call  the  whole  thing  international  to  hide 
the  theft,  and  publish  none  of  our  own 
worthy  of  the  name. 

Do  I  say  there  is  no  American  art  ?  By 
no  means.  I  say  that  of  art  objects  pure 
and  simple,  of  our  own  make,  and  of  objects 
made  beautiful  by  the  application  of  orna- 
ment of  our  own  designing  and  applied  by 

[6] 


AMERICAN  ART 

our  own  artisans,  we  produce,  in  spite  of 
our  numbers,  prosperity  and  wealth,  very, 
very  few. 


n 

WHY  THERE  IS  SO  LITTLE  AMERICAN  ART 

I  have  hinted  at  what  I  include  in  the  term 
American  Art.  Before  attempting  to  make 
that  statement  clearer,  let  me  say  that 
there  are  sufficient  reasons  for  our  failure  to 
produce  more  than  a  few  art  objects  which 
are  worthy  of  note.  The  reasons  are  simply 
these,  ( I )  we  are  too  busy,  and  (2)  our  rich 
buy  art  objects  elsewhere! 

We  are  rather  energetic.  We  began  life 
with  a  picked  lot  of  stiff-necked  and  rebels 
lious  people,  people  who  found  irksome  the 
curbs  that  the  conventions  of  their  old  home 
put  on  them  and  were  quite  ready  and 
willing  to  accept  hardships  and  serious  toil 
if  they  could  thereby  win  a  living  and  mean" 
while  be  free  of  those  curbs.  Even  to  this 
day  our  numbers  are  almost  hourly  recruited 

[71 


AMERICAN  ART 

by  those  who  have  chafed  under  the  disci" 
pline  of  ancient  circumstance  and  have 
come  here  ready  to  be  tireless  in  accom^ 
plishmentjifonly  they  can  acquire.  We  are 
born,  that  is,  to  wish  to  do, — if  thereby  we 
can  earn.  Nature  has  set  a  very  fertile 
country  here  before  us,  and  we  are  now 
busily  at  work  therein,  with  quite  admira^ 
ble  results. 


m 

PLAY  AND  ART 

We  have  at  last  put  our  affairs  in  such  good 
order  that  we  can  spare  a  little  time  for 
play.  But  a  people  may  take  quite  freely  of 
recreation  and  still  not  find  itself  ready  for 
the  enjoyment  and  patronage  of  art.  Play 
represents  the  agreeable  release  of  certain 
surplus  energy;  art  appreciation  seems  to 
represent  the  agreeable  release  of  certain 
rather  definitely^trained  surplus  emotions. 

The  surplus  energy  is  ours  by  reason  of 
our  nature,  our  high  standard  of  living  and 

[8] 


AMERICAN  ART 

our  abundant  and  easily  conquered  re^ 
sources.  The  surplus  emotions  are  perhaps 
ours  also ;  but  it  has  not  yet  occurred  to  us 
so  to  train  them  that  their  exercise  will  give 
us  deep  and  varied  pleasures. 

Our  rich  and  learned,  and  especially  the 
women  of  the  rich  and  learned  class,  can 
spare  time  and  strength  for  the  opera,  but 
hardly  for  a  discriminating  study  of  music. 
They  can  find  time  for  visits  to  an  art 
museum  when  such  visits  are  the  mode;  but 
not  for  the  development  of  their  esthetic 
sense  by  the  careful  study  of  any  of  the 
thousands  of  classes  of  objects  there  dis^ 
played.  They  can  find  time  for  art  lectures 
at  a  club;  but  not  to  read  a  sound  book  on 
any  art  topic,  or  to  collect  with  discretion 
and  taste  art  objects  of  any  kind. 

We  seem  to  have  been  bom  with  the 
work  habit,  and  with  endless  opportunity 
and  some  press  of  need  for  its  exercise ;  we 
are  acquiring  the  play  habit  as  our  gains 
begin  to  outrun  our  needs ;  but  we  have 
slight  leanings  yet  toward  that  art  habit 

[9] 


AMERICAN  ART 


which  calls  for  a  careful  training  of  our 
y^  unexpended  fund  of  feelings.  This  is  not 
because  we  are  lessartistic  than  other  peo'^ 
pies;  but  because  we  have  not  had  time  and 
inclination  to  give  heed  to  objects  of  art. 


IV 

ARTISTS   AND    ARTISANS   ARE  HERE,  BUT  ARE 
NOT  PAID  TO  PRODUCE 

Among  us,  as  among  all  other  peoples,  a  few 
men  and  women  are  born  with  the  desire 
to  spend  their  Hves  in  acquiring  high  skill 
in  some  craft  and  in  applying  that  skill  to 
the  production  of  useless  objects  of  beauty 
and  the  adornment  of  objects  of  daily  use. 
These  persons  are  born  and  live  among  us ; 
but,  while  the  consummate  genius  among 
them  may  survive  and  prove  his  powers  in 
spite  of  lack  of  support  and  sympathy,  the 
most  of  them  are  either  never  stimulated  to 
serious  endeavor,  or  are  never  aroused  to  an 
appreciation  of  their  talent  by  any  atmos" 
phere  of  art  patronage  that  we  supply. 

[lo] 


AMERICAN  ART 


GENIUS  AND    TALENT   REMAIN  HIDDEN  UNTIL 
THEY  ARE  CALLED  FORTH 

Some  say  there  never  was  a  mute,  inglorious 
Milton ;  that  all  high  talent  inevitably  finds 
its  way  to  accomplishment.  But  can  we 
believe  that  if  we  gave  as  loud  and  insistent 
a  call,  and  one  as  profitable  to  those  who 
answer  it,  for  sculpture,  or  for  autumn  land^ 
scapes  in  oil,  or  for  tapestries,  or  for  porcc" 
lains,  as  we  have  given  in  recent  years  for 
automobiles,  we  would  not  have  found  an 
ample  response  from  men  and  women  of 
notable  talent  ?  The  rich  among  us  have, 
in  recent  years,  spent  many  millions  for 
paintings  by  foreign  painters  and  for  rare 
and  ancient  curios  from  other  lands.  Had 
that  money  been  offered  for  worthy  pro^ 
ducts  of  native  talent,  would  not  the  worthy 
products  have  appeared  ?  No  one  can  give 
any  sound  reason  for  believing  they  would 
not.  It  is  easy  to  show  by  example  that 
they  would. 


AMERICAN  ART 

VI 

THE  ITALIAN  RENAISSANCE  CAME  WHEN  IT 
WAS  PAID  TO  COME 

The  rich  and  powerful  leaders  of  men  and 
affairs  in  Italian  cities  four  hundred  and  five 
hundred  years  ago,  found  that  they  must 
mark  themselves  as  a  distinct  and  superior 
class,  not  merely  by  showing  that  they  pos^ 
sessed  high  intellectual  powers  through 
their  conduct  of  war  and  affairs,  but  also  by 
a  certain  display  of  wealth.  They  found 
that  to  hold  their  standing  as  persons  pecul" 
iarly  blessed  by  providence,  as  notoriously 
good,  great  and  noble,  they  must  do  certain 
things  and  possess  certain  things,  the  doing 
of  which  and  the  possession  of  which  would 
be  accepted  as  honorific  by  the  common 
people.  They  acted  upon  this  conclusion, 
just  as  have  all  of  the  groups  of  rich, 
great  and  powerful  men  of  historic  times. 
They  demanded  palaces  for  homes.  They 
took  up  pastimes  which  only  the  rich  and 
powerful  could  take  part  in.  They  acquired 

[12] 


AMERICAN  ART 

rich  and  costly  clothing.  They  built  and 
endowed  churches  and  erected  elaborate 
and  costly  shrines  and  altars.  They  made 
collections  of  paintings,  marbles,  bronzies  and 
curios  of  a  thousand  kinds.  Some  of  these 
things  they  could  cause  to  be  brought  from 
other  countries,  and  those  thus  obtained, 
especially  if  rare,  costly,  and  unobtainable 
by  others,  acquired  thereby  an  added  honor- 
giving  power.  For  to  the  desire  to  do  and  to 
possess  things  which  gave  them  distinction 
in  the  eyes  of  the  populace,  was  added  the 
desire  to  outdo  their  wealthy  and  powerful 
rivals  in  the  pursuit  of  that  same  distinction. 
Thus  far  the  case  of  the  Italian  aristo- 
crats runs  parallel  with  that  of  our  own. 
Here  and  today  the  wealthy  are  impelled, 
first,  to  distinguish  themselves  from  the 
common,  poorer  people  by  conspicuous  con- 
sumption and  conspicuous  w^aste  and,  next, 
to  outdo  their  equals  in  wealth  by  the 
acquisition  of  costly  and  curious  objects,  so 
rare  that  their  colleagues  in  wealth  can  not 
acquire  the  counterparts  thereof 

[13] 


AMERICAN  ART 

The  use  of  wealth  in  enhancing  distinc" 
tion  has  followed  a  like  custom  with  Italian 
noble  and  rich  American. 

But,  the  former  found  that  the  supply  of 
honor^bringing  curios  was  small  and  its 
source  remote.  He  was  compelled  soon  to 
call  on  the  people  of  his  own  country  to 
create  those  elaborate  labor-consuming  pro- 
ducts which  he  needed  to  serve  as  stigmata 
of  social  distinction.  He  asked  for  tapestries, 
silks,  wood-carvings,  iron  work,  bron2;es, 
silverware,  jewelry  and  a  thousand  other 
things.  He  insisted  that  these  be  larger, 
finer,  more  costly,  more  bi2;arre,  more  glori- 
ous and  more  labor-consuming  and  skill- 
demanding  than  those  his  rivals,  in  the 
search  for  honor-bringing  possessions,  had 
yet  discovered  and  acquired.  These  were 
not  to  be  found  in  the  east  or  in  France;  or,  if 
found,  werenot  sufficient  in  number  or  were 
not  precisely  suited  to  the  special  needs  of 
his  own  person  or  his  own  palace.  He  pro- 
ceeded straightway  to  command  Italian 
artists  and  Italian  artisans  to  produce  them, 

[14] 


AMERICAN  ART 

and  the  renaissance  in  fine  arts  was  forth^ 
with  on  its  way. 

VII 

THE    AMERICAN    RENAISSANCE    IS    NOT    EVEN 
COURTEOUSLY   INVITED  TO  APPEAR 

With  US  the  conditions  are  far  different. 
Our  rich  find  an  ample  supply  of  honorific 
curios  in  the  relics  of  European  and  Asiatic 
civili2;ations.  They  buy  the  Barbi2;on  paint' 
ing  and  the  Gothic  shrine ;  they  enrich  the 
forger  and  they  rifle  the  ancient  temple. 
Modern  methods  of  trade  and  transporta" 
tion  bring  within  range  of  their  purses  the 
choicest  of  the  remains  of  a  do2;en  civiliza- 
tions, in  each  of  which  conditions  like  those 
in  Italy  in  1500  persuaded  genius  and  skill 
to  produce  art  objects  in  countless  curious 
forms. 

Indeed,  so  ample  is  the  supply  of  honor- 
bringing  curios  that  the  race  for  distinction 
in  art  patronage,  between  our  very  rich, 
long  since  ceased  to  be  one  of  taste  and 
has  become  one  merely  of  length  of  purse. 

[15] 


AMERICAN  ART 

Meanwhile  it  is  not  as  it  was  in  Italy  with 
artists  and  artisans.  They  were  commanded 
to  produce,  and  at  times  the  commands 
were  even  guided  by  a  discriminating  taste. 
Here  our  artists  and  artisans  are  continu" 
ously  ignored.  Their  products  are  not 
needed  as  pri2;es  in  the  race  for  distinc" 
tion  in  curio^acquisition ;  genius,  talent  and 
patiently  acquired  skill  are  not  called  forth, 
and  America  has  neither  artists  nor  artisans 
and — there  is  very  little  American  art! 


VIII 

OUR  VIEW  OF  WHAT  IS  ART,  IS  MUCH  TOO 
NARROW 

Returning  to  the  things  that  the  phrase 
American  art  brings  to  mind,  I  would  say 
that  I  named  them  because  I  wish  to  show 
that  we  habitually  take  far  too  narrow  a 
view  of  the  art  field. 

Most  of  us  like  to  work.  But  work  does 
not  exhaust  the  possibilities  of  enjoyment ; 

[i6] 


AMERICAN  ART 

and  idling  has  large  and  continued  possibili- 
ties of  pleasure  onlyfor  the  unfortunate  few. 
Play  has  narrow  limits  to  its  powers  of 
pleasing.  Only  by  making  a  game  serious 
and  letting  it  ape  the  manners  of  a  task  can 
we  long  tolerate  it;  and,  lacking  productive 
or  creative  features,  it  does  not,  even  when 
masked  as  labor,  long  entirely  satisfy.  But 
our  nature  is  such  that,  even  after  we  have 
brought  body  and  brain  measurably  near  to 
the  point  of  exhaustion  either  by  work  or 
by  play  masquerading  as  work,  we  still  have 
on  hand  a  surplus  of  feeling.  This  surplus 
we  can,  if  we  will,  use  for  the  production  of 
high  and  simple  pleasures  in  the  contempla- 
tion  of  what,  for  lack  of  a  better  phrase, 
we  call  objects  of  art. 

I  venture  to  restate  the  thought  in  other 
words :  To  get  the  maximum  out  of  this 
short  life  we  must  take  delight  in  our  feel- 
ings. We  can  work,  and  win  in  the  race, 
and  add  house  to  house  and  land  to  land; 
but,  if  we  do  not  at  the  same  time  have  the 
daily  and  hourly    pleasure  of  alert  and 

[17] 


AMERICAN  ART 

inteUigent  response  to  the  fine  and  delicate 
and  thoughtful  andgenius-bom  design,  oma" 
ment  and  decoration  which  are  always 
before  us,  then  we  live  only  a  fraction  of  the 
life  it  is  possible  to  live. 

Granted  that  there  are  degrees  among  us 
as  to  the  possibilities  of  cultivating  this 
emotion.  Some  can  delight  gloriously  in  a 
bit  of  machine-made  moulding  in  the  jamb 
of  a  door  or  the  sill  of  a  window,  if  they 
find  its  curves  evince  thought  and  refined 
taste  in  the  one  who  designed  it ;  while  some 
are  unmoved  even  before  a  splendid  bron2;e 
or  a  glowing  canvas. 


IX 

THE  OIL  PAINTING  FETISH 

But  in  general  this  is  true,  that  life  is  meas" 
ured  by  its  thrills.  His  good  day  s  work, 
his  game  well  played,  and,  the  art  that  gen^ 
ius  sets  before  him — each  of  these  should 
furnish  delights,  and  the  latter  can  give 

[i8] 


AMERICAN  ART 

easily  the  most,  and  some  of  the  deepest, 
and  some  of  the  most  lasting. 

Now  genius  sets  art  before  us  in  many 
forms.  One  of  these  forms,  painting,  has  long 
received  more  than  its  due  share  of  atten^ 
tion.  Few  men  of  art  genius  have  the  special 
genius  for  painting.  The  number  of  good 
paintings  produced  in  a  generation  is  con- 
sequently small;  being  much  in  demand 
they  are  high  in  price  and  are  bought  only 
by  the  wealthy.  The  result  is  that  few  can 
see  good  paintings  save  by  making  visits  to 
a  distant  museum. 

If  it  is  true  that  it  is  well  to  broaden  and 
enrich  life  by  agreeable  reactions,  and  that 
these  may  best  be  acquired  by  educating 
ourselves  to  respond  eagerly  when  we  look 
upon  objects  of  art;  then  it  is  also  true  that 
we  should  learn  how  to  secure  those  reac- 
tions in  and  by  the  presence  of  objects  of 
art  which  are  of  less  rarity  and  of  less  cost 
than  paintings. 

In  other  words,  if  you  wish  to  get  all  the 
enjoyment  that  your  capacities  permit  out 

[i9l 


AMERICAN  ART 

of  the  beautiful  creations  of  your  fellow 
men,  you  must  learn  to  see  and  feel  the 
beauty  that  lies  in  the  good  engraving,  etch- 
ing, tapestry,  bronzje,  wood-carving,  chair, 
table,  lace,  moulding,  facade  and  countless 
other  objects  of  pure  or  applied  art. 


THE  STUDY  OF  AMERICAN  ART  DEFINED 

To  learn  to  know  and  feel  this  beauty  in 
every-day  objects  which  have  been  pro- 
duced in  America,  this  is  to  study  American 
Art.  It  is  not  to  read  works  on  esthetics 
or  on  the  history  of  art  production;  though 
such  reading  may  prove  entertaining  and 
even  helpful  in  your  study  proper.  It  is  not, 
save  in  slight  degree,  to  make  an  occasional 
pilgrimage  to  an  art  gallery;  though  this 
may  be  worth  while  if  only  to  enable  you 
to  keep  up  with  that  conversational  pro- 
cession in  which  at  times  we  all  must  march. 
It  is  not  to  parade  with  guide  book,  guide 
or  professional  esthete  through  the  art 

[20] 


AMERICAN  ART 

galleries  of  Europe;  though  this  may  give  us 
some  of  the  peace  that  comes  with  con^ 
sciousness  of  duty  done. 

It  is,  first,  to  observe  with  care  one  or 
several  of  the  many  classes  of  objects  which 
our  artists  and  artisans  are  producing  and 
trying  to  make  beautiful  in  line,  form, 
arrangement  and  color;  to  observe  them 
with  care;  to  decide  if,  regardless  of  price, 
they  please  a  little,  or  much,  or  not  at  all;  to 
learn  of  their  many  kinds;  of  the  manner  of 
their  making;  of  the  skill  that  goes  into  their 
production;  of  the  changes  they  have  un^ 
dergone  in  their  development,  and,  finally, 
always  finally,  to  learn  what  is  said  of  them 
by  those  competent  to  speak  thereon. 

XI 

THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  BEING  INTERESTED  AND 
CRITICAL 

In  art  matters  it  is  more  important  to  be 
sensitive  than  to  be  knowing:  it  is  better 
worth  while  to  feel  that  a  thing  is  right,  for 
you,  and  to  get  pleasure  with  the  feeling, 

[21] 


AMERICAN  ART 

than  it  is  to  know  who  made  it  and  when, 
where  it  was  made  and  under  what  condi- 
tions, who  has  owned  it,  who  now  owns  it, 
what  he  paid  for  it,  and,  what  great  critics 
have  said  of  it. 

If  you  cultivate  your  sensibilities  by  the 
keen  observation  and  careful  criticism  of 
every-day,  familiar  objects,  you  cultivate 
thereby  the  whole  esthetic  side  of  your 
nature  almost  as  effectively — and  in  view  of 
the  multiplicity  of  opportunities  which 
these  ever-present  objects  offer,  even  more 
effectively,  and  certainly  more  rapidly,— 
than  by  the  observation,  for  example,  of  the 
world's  masterpieces  of  painting. 

At  the  bottom  of  all  visual  arts  are  cer- 
tain elements — line,  form,  arrangement,  let 
us  say, — which  may  be  studied  in  the  simple 
pen-and-ink  sketch  which  appears  in  a 
monthly  journal  or  in  the  cup  which  serves 
its  humble  purpose  on  the  breakfast  table, 
almost  as  well  as  in  the  facade  of  a  cathedral, 
in  the  glory  of  a  splendid  painting,  or  in  the 
glow  of  an  ancient  porcelain. 

[22] 


AMERICAN  ART 
xn 

ART  STUDY  SHOULD  BE  DOMESTICATED 

Furthermore,  if  you  school  yourself  with 
moderate  effort  to  look  for  beauty,  and  for 
ugliness  also, — for  it  is  in  seeing  both  the 
wrong  and  the  right  in  art  objects  that 
emotional  discipline  and  art  culture  come — 
if  you  look  with  care  for  the  good  and  the 
ill  in  the  objects  that  lie  about  you  daily, 
you  do  it  without  the  distractions  that 
encompass  you  on  a  visit  to  a  gallery  of  art. 
For  here  you  are  conscious  of  ten  thousand 
votes  already  cast  in  praise  of  what  you  see, 
and  you  cannot  set  your  judgment  free  of 
them.  You  see  with  others'  eyes,  not  with 
your  own.  Even  if  you  dare  be  true  to  your^ 
self  and  secretly  admit  your  failure  to  find 
the  pleasure  that  others  find  in  a  Monet 
or  a  Cezanne  or  an  Italian  primitive,  you 
probably  have  not  the  courage  of  expres" 
sion ;  and  you  come  away,  not  more  acutely 
sensitive  to  good  painting,  but  simply  more 
skilful  in  pretence. 

[23] 


AMERICAN  ART 

And  again,  even  if  you  are  able  to  look 
at  a  painting  fair  and  true,  and  to  say  to 
yourself  that,  regardless  of  the  world's  judg" 
ment,  this  and  that  are  what  you  find  in  it 
to  add  to  your  enjoyment,  you  quite  proba^ 
bly  are  so  taken  up  with  what  the  painting 
tells,  what  sort  of  a  person  the  painter  of  it 
was,  how  he  looked  and  what  his  morals 
were,  when  he  lived  and  where,  and, 
especially,  how  much  the  painting  cost,  that, 
hedged  in  by  questions  of  morals,  history, 
biography  and  finance,  you  have  no  fair  look 
whatever  at  the  painting  itself 

The  study  of  American  Art,  then,  the 
study  of  how  to  develop  one's  appreciation 
and  enjoyment  of  American-made  art  ob" 
jects,  properly  begins  with  the  collection, 
the  careful  study,  the  critical  observation  of 
all  objects  of  art — and  they  not  necessarily 
the  best — which  are  made  in  America. 

One  need  not  complain  that  American 
art  is  a  mere  copy  of  the  art  of  other  coun- 
tries, for  art  is  always  largely  a  copy  of  what 
has  preceded  it,  plus  the  something  which 

[24] 


AMERICAN  ART 

makes  it  art.  One  need  not  lament  the  lack 
of  sincerity  in  American  art  and  its  contrast 
in  that  respect  with  the  art,  for  example,  of 
the  Italian  renaissance;  for  the  sincerity  is 
not  lacking  now  and  here  and  was  not 
notably  present  in  the  days  of  Raphael. 

The  thesis  here  laid  down  is  simply  this : 
— art  has  a  wider  field  and  therefore  offers 
more  possibilities  of  pleasure  than  most  of 
us  have  realized.  We  in  America  have  not 
produced  much  good  art  because  we  have 
been  too  busy  adjusting  a  growing  colony 
to  a  new  land,  and  because  our  rich  acquire 
distinction  in  curios  bought  in  other  coun- 
tries. We  can  best  study  art  to  the  end  of 
becoming  sensitive  to  it,  which  means 
becoming  esthetic,  by  observing  it  and  criti- 
cizing it,  and  especially  in  all  its  more 
familiar  forms. 

xm 

HOW  TO  BECOME  PATRONS  OF  AMERICAN  ART 

If  what  I  have  ventured  to  affirm  is  true, 
it  is  easy  to  learn  from  it  how  we  may 

[^5] 


AMERICAN  ART 

promote  American  art;  how  we  may 
become  worthy  and  helpful  patrons  of  it  in 
the  best  sense  of  that  word. 

The  formula  is  very  simple:  first,  we  must 
buy  it ;  next  we  must  study  it ;  next,  we  must 
criticize  it,  adversely  where  we  feel  com^ 
pelled;  and,  finally,  we  must  praise  it  where 
we  can. 

In  buying,  with  the  patronage  of  art  in 
view,  we  must  of  course  discriminate.  To 
be  able  to  discriminate  to  good  purpose,  to 
the  end  that  we  may  encourage  the  serious 
and  accomplished  artist,  and,  by  neglect, 
discourage  the  pretender,  we  must  seriously 
study  our  subject.  Unless  one  is  rarely 
gifted  and  has  an  intuitive  knowledge  of 
what  is  fine  and  sound  and  wholesome  and 
enduring  in  all  departments  of  art, — and 
very  few  are  so  gifted, — one  must  select  a 
narrow  field,  study  it,  master  it  as  far  as 
ability  and  opportunity  permit,  become  in  it 
an  expert,  or  better,  become  in  it  what  we 
may  call,  to  render  freely  the  French 
phrase,  an  honest  amateur. 

[26] 


AMERICAN  ART 

XIV 

THE  GREAT  OBSTACLE  TO  BECOMING  AN  HONEST 
ART  PATRON 

Now,  if  any  chance  to  feel  tempted  to  take 
up  art  in  this  simpff,  honest,  every-day  sense 
and,  holding  themselves  in  all  other  fields  to 
the  acquisition  of  objects  of  the  simplest 
and  most  frankly  utilitarian  kind,  devote 
themselves  to  one  special  field,  inform  them^ 
selves  concerning  it,  buy  objects  in  it  with 
some  freedom,  always  expecting  to  learn 
from  each  purchase  how  to  select  more 
wisely  for  the  next  one, — if  any  do  this  with 
the  hope  of  becoming  one  of  the  blessed 
and  ever-joyful  company  of  honest  ama- 
teurs,  they  will  find  at  least  one  serious 
obstacle  to  progress. 

This  obstacle  is  the  result  of  the  com^ 
bination  of  some  of  the  factors  already 
spoken  of:  our  native  energy  and  our  natural 
resources.  These  have  worked  together  to 
make  us,  as  it  were,  wealthy  before  our  de^ 
serts.  There  is,  no  doubt,  a  time  for  riches; 

1^7] 


AMERICAN  ART 

but  it  were  well  for  art  if  that  time  did  not 
so  often  come  so  soon.  Widiustiie power 
of  acquisition  has  outpaced  the  growth  of 
capacitj^for  appreciation  and  enjoyment. 
We  likelo^etlEings ;  but,  having  lheiii,4t 
often  happens  that  the  only  form  of  enjoy 
ment  in  them  that  occurs  to  us  is,  to  show 
them.  To  put  it  in  another  way,  our  men^ 
tal  and  esthetic  equipment  is  not  up  to  the 
level  of  our  wealth.  We  have  been  so  busy 
sowing  and  hoeing  and  garnering  in  nature's 
garden  that  we  have  not  taken  time  to 
practice  intensive  agriculture  on  our  own 
intellects.  As  a  nation  we  are  as  smart  as 
we  think  we  are,  I  guess ;  surely  we  are  not 
as  wise. 


XV 

A  DEFINITE  SUGGESTION  FOR  ART  PATRONAGE 

The  phrase  which  describes  quite  well  the 
obstacle  to  that  art  study  and  art  patronage 
which  I  have  recommended  is  "  spendthrift 

[28] 


AMERICAN  ART 

mediocrity/'  It  denotes  a  national  tendency. 
It  does  not  make  for  the  promotion  of  good 
art. 

Abundant  suggestions  are  at  hand  for 
guidance  in  the  task  of  patroni2;ing  Ameri- 
can art.   Here  is  one : 

Study  your  tea-cups.  The  drinking  vessel 
of  every-day  use  is  an  object  on  which  those 
endowed  with  the  creative  art  faculty  have 
spent  time,  care,  labor  and  high  skill  for 
many  thousands  of  years.  It  has  taken  a 
million  forms  and  has  been  adorned  in  a 
million  ways.  The  whole  field  of  drinking 
vessels  is  too  large  for  anyone  to  attempt 
to  master ;  but  the  tea-cup  of  today,  as  made 
in  America,  and  better  still  as  made  in 
America  in  the  last  ten  years,  would  be  an 
object  about  which  one  might  hope  in  time 
to  learn  something. 

To  study  art  as  exemplified  in  tea-cups  of 
today,  may  sound  a  trivial  suggestion. 
Surely  it  is  not.  It  can  open  up  the  wide 
topics  of  line,  fonn,  color  and  arrangement, 
and  help  one  to  become  discriminating  in  all 

[29l 


AMERICAN  ART 

art  fields,  if  one  has  capacity  for  discrimina^ 
tion.  Remember,  also,  that  if  even  a  few 
only  of  our  citizens  were  to  give  time, 
thought  and  a  modicum  of  money  to  the 
purchase  and  study  of  present  day  tea-cups, 
the  designers  in  our  potteries  would  know 
it  and  would  be  encouraged  thereby.  These 
designers  must  chiefly  design  what  will 
appeal  to  spendthrift  mediocrity;  but  that 
is  not  the  kind  of  work  for  which  inspired 
designers  feel  they  are  born;  and  for  them 
to  learn  that  even  a  few  of  their  fellows 
have  determined  to  master  the  elements  of 
good  taste  as  they  may  be  exemplified  in  the 
products  of  their  skill,  will  give  them  encour- 
agement akin  to  that  which  the  nobles  gave 
to  artists  and  artisans  in  Florence  500  years 
ago. 

Art  has  always  flourished  where  it  was 
asked  to  flourish,  and  never  elsewhere.  If 
we  wish  for  a  renaissance  of  art  in  America 
we  must  be  students  and  patrons  of  endeav- 
ors which  seem  humble,  but  are  in  truth  of 
the  utmost  importance,  here  at  home.    If 

[30] 


AMERICAN  ART 

American  art  does  not  flourish  it  will  not 
be  because  we  are  too  rich,  or  unduly 
sordid,  or  insincere;  but  because  we  refuse 
to  become  discriminating  patrons  of  the 
every-'day  good  things  our  fellow  citi2;ens 
can  produce  if  a  kindly  interest  stimulate 
them  thereto. 


[31I 


THE  TYPE  OF  THIS  BOOK  IS  KENNERLEY,  FOUR- 
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BINDING,  SELECTED  BY  THE  AUTHOR,  IS  BY 
W.  H.    RADEMAEKERS,   NEWARK,   NEW  JERSEY 


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